Original title: Acacia
Country: South Korea
Year: 2003
Directed by: Ki-Hyeong Park
Film praised by industry experts and critics, cut off cleanly by scholars of the genre fans and savvy. Acacia is a title that divides opinion: either you love it or hate it. I do not think there are no half measures in front of a brick of this size (it was never a word more out of place, maybe I should talk to stone, but I forgive the rhetorical flourish).
The plot seems to be the usual hackneyed drama often seen in films of a different kind: a husband and wife in crisis because they can not have children take the problem child who seems fond of the strangest things and develop a decent relationship with his grandfather only , only to be a little softer than expected and Ceará confusion on arrival, quite unexpectedly, a brother designed so miraculously (and unexpectedly) natural.
This suggests a drama rather than horror .. and that is why I think Acacia has not been fully appreciated. The idea is nothing more obscure than a pretext to introduce topics that anything supernatural horror here is given by the tragedy, from the unexpected and the pain it brings. Nothing is more frightening and obscure what is happening in the home, often the scene of such tragic staged to be removed and even erased from family history. But then come back to haunt the daily lives of the inhabitants, as in the worst of nightmares.
Acacia is not a movie facile. Non è un film leggero. Non è un film adatto a tutti. Ma soprattutto non è un film dell'orrore: strizza l'occhio ad un genere totalmente alieno, tentando così di giustificare (o fornire false speranze?) l'orrore vero.. quello realistico e reale che molte persone vivono al di qua dello schermo. Pervaso da un perenne senso di malinconia e abbandono, girato in poche pochissime locations, dominato dalle tonalità del giallo (il rapporto isterico con una madre albero), bianco (la morte onnipresente) e rosso (la violenza dell'omicidio ma anche dell'amore e della gelosia) e abilmente recitato da attori perfettamente calati nei loro scomodi ruoli, è un titolo che non mi sento di consigliare a tutti ma che merita molto.
Rating: 8
